Milgram, Freud, Scandal and Sport, here’s the Psychological Year in Review:

Jan – Hertfordshire police said they’d completed a successful trial using the polygraph with convicted sex offenders. The test, which measures physiological arousal, has a poor reputation among psychological scientists. Aldert Vrij at the University of Portsmouth said it is “atheoretical and inaccurate”. Figures from December showing a dramatic rise in anti-depressant medications continued to attract controversy. The mainstream media said it was a sign of the recession affecting our mental health. Ben Goldacre and others disagreed.

March – A row erupted over replications in psychology after a US professor reacted angrily to a failed replication of one of his seminal papers. The Maudsley/IoP debated whether psychoanalysis has a place in the modern NHS. The UK Government’s Behavioural Insight Team said millions of pounds could be saved by using psychological insights to combat fraud and error. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its first data on the nation’s wellbeing. An article was published on the last of the split-brain patients.April – The Levelt committee at the University of Tilburg published the preliminary results from its investigation into the fraud by Diederik Stapel. The Psychologist published an opinion special issue on the importance of replication. The UK’s first ever “happiness weekend” took place at Wellington college. The British Psychological Society launched its Origins project – charting the history of the discipline. Neuroscience writer Jonah Lehrer published his eagerly awaited book on creativity – Imagine. Channel 4 began a new show about people’s hidden psychological talents.

July – The Erasmus University of Rotterdam found one of their top social psychologists, Dirk Smeesters, guilty of “data selection” and failing to keep suitable data records. Chartered Psychologist Lih-Mei Liao, was part of a team behind a new animated documentary about labiaplasty. Pioneering occupational psychologist Harry Levinson passed away. An LA-Times op-ed urged people to stop bullying the social sciences. Another said psychology isn’t a science (oh yes it is). Social psychologist Lawrence Sanna resigned his post under the cloud of scandal. Newsweek said the Internet is making us crazy. Plans were announced for the polygraph test to be rolled out nationally in England and Wales. George Miller passed away. Jonah Lehrer resigned his position at the New Yorker after admitting he’d fabricated some Bob Dylan quotes in his book Imagine.

August – More data were published showing anti-depressant prescriptions on the rise. A murder trial judge in the US ruled that fMRI-based lie-detection evidence was inadmissible. Cambridge University merged its two psychology departments into one – “Experimental Psychology” and “Social and Developmental Psychology”. The first annual results from the ONS well-being survey found that three quarters of people aged over 16 rated their overall life satisfaction as 7 or more (out of 10).

September – The winners of the latest annual Ig Nobel Awards were announced, including a study that brain scanned a dead salmon and another that showed leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower appear smaller. Nature published an editorial lamenting the lack of investment in research into ways to improve the effectiveness of psychological therapy. The Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) published an open letter to its members urging them to “make discussions of ethical behavior part of the everyday discussion in your lab.” The Commission on Media Violence concluded that “research clearly shows that media violence consumption increases the relative risk of aggression.”

November – Labour leader Ed Miliband gave a speech to the Royal College of Psychiatrists about mental illness, which he described as the “biggest unaddressed health challenge of our age”. Nate Silver predicted the outcome of the US presidential election using number-crunching techniques. The Schizophrenia Commission published the results of its year-long investigation into the state of care for patients in England with schizophrenia, finding them to be “badly let down”. The Effect, a play about depression and the inadequacy of neuropharmacological explanations, opened at the Cottesloe Theatre, London, to rave reviews.